"In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those people who decide to die?" Do people have a right to approve or disapprove of suicide? Do we have a moral obligation to stop someone from trying to kill himself? Can the decision to commit suicide ever be considered rational?-Veronika(Extract from the book)
Veronika(the main character of the book) is 24 years old,she is beautiful and has a good job.It may seem that she has everything to have a good life,still she decides to commit suicide.Why?
She feels powerless and also that the world in which she lives is messed up.She is bored of everything,she feels so alone in a world full of people and feels that her life isn`t complete and suicide is a way to escape from everything.
After she takes the sleeping pills she reads a magazine waiting for her death,and seeing an article "Where is Slovenia?" she decides to writes a letter saying that she killed herself because people don`t know where is Slovenia.
She fails and she wakes up in Vilette,a mental hospital from Slovenia were Dr.Igo tells her that she has just one week to live because she damaged her heart when she tryed to commit suicide.
Dr.Igo is another interesting character of the book.He has his own theory about the poison of the mind which he names it vitriol(the same as the toxic chemical discovered by alchemists),so he tells his patients that they have only a few days to live,believeing that in this way they will find the will to live and won`t try again to commit suicide.
He does the same thing with Veronika telling her that she has only one more week to live and by doing this she has the chance to do the things she never let her before to do.
In the mental hospital Veronika develops friendships with some of the other patients and gets the chances to knows their stories.Zedka has clinical depression,Mari suffers from panic attacks and Eduard who has schizophrenia.Their families don't understand them, and they can't adjust to the social structure that doesn't tolerate their individuality so the only place proper for them is Vilette.
Eduard helps Veronika to discover herself and she falls in love with him.Both,he and she help eachother to find the will for enjoying the life and overcome all their fears.The experiences they have lead them gradually to realise that every second of existence is a choice that all we make,a choice between life and death.And she truly live each day as if it were her last.
Some extracts from the book that I liked:
"It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else: it causes neurosis, psychosis and paranoia. It’s a distortion of nature, it goes against God’s laws, for in all the world’s woods and forests, He did not create a single leaf the same as another. But you think it’s mad to be different and that’s why you chose to live in Vilette, because everyone is different here, and so you appear to be the same as everyone else."
"We’re allowed to make a lot of mistakes in our lives(...)except the mistake that destroys us.”
"We’ve replaced nearly all our emotions with fear.”
Life is like a song which reminds us that every new day that we live is a precious gift that we shouldn`t waste.
Life is like a song which remind us that every moment we live is special and precious.
We shouldn`t forget that when one door closes another door opens
الأربعاء أكتوبر 17, 2007 10:56 pm